Three Mikado type (2-8-2) locomotives were built in 1912 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Woodward Iron Company in Woodward, AL (#29-#31). #31 was sold to the Rockton & Rion Railroad in 1962.
#31 weighs 210,050 lbs, 178,200 lbs on its 51” drivers. The driver wheelbase is 14’ 6” and the engine wheelbase 29’. It is equipped with Walschaert valve gear and 22” x 28” cylinders. The grate is 57 sq ft, the firebox 185 sq ft. Total heating surface is 3,303 sq ft and, operating at a boiler pressure of 210 psi, it delivered 47,432 lbs tractive effort. The tender weighs 140,000 light with a capacity of 7,000 gallons of water and 11 tons of coal.
The Rockton & Rion Railroad, completed in 1897, is a 12 mile short line connecting the Winnsboro Granite Company’s Anderson Quarry with the Southern Railway at Rockton, SC. It was owned and operated by the Heyward family until 1967 when it was sold to Martin Marietta Aggregate. The following year, #31 was sold to Fairfield Enterprises in Rion, SC. In 1973, it was sold to the Okefenokee Heritage Center in Waycross, GA, where it is on display today as “Ol’ Nine”.
The locomotive is named after Old Nine, the
name for the original settlement that became Waycross, and the ninth stop on the Atlantic &
Gulf Railroad laid from Savannah to Waycross. When I visited, the center was closed, so I could only take very limited shots of #31 from the perimiter fence.
Martin Marietta Aggregate continued to operate the Rockton & Rion line until 1978 when it abandoned the Rion Quarry. The railroad then sat idle until 1984, when #31 was donated to the South Carolina Railroad Museum.
